This invention relates to a manually-operated snow shovel having a self-contained ejection plate. In a preferred form of the invention, the shovel comprises a forwardly-opening hood having a blade at its front end; and elongated handle is attached to the hood for pushing it into a layer of snow on a driveway, sidewalk or other surface that needs to be cleared of snow.
The hood is equipped with two front ground wheels and two rear ground wheels, such that the blade at the front end of the hood is maintained in near proximity to the ground surface as the hood is moved into the snow layer. Forward motion of the hood causes the blade to move underneath the snow layer, whereby a quantity of snow is relocated within the hood.
The snow is deposited onto a snow ejection plate that extends rearwardly from the blade to the hood rear wall. This snow ejection plate is hingedly connected to the blade for swinging motion in a vertical arc. While the shovel is moving into a snow layer to capture snow, the ejection plate is in a prone (lowered) position. After a quantity of snow has been deposited onto the ejection plate, the shovel is backed away from the snow layer and then moved to a location where it is desired to discharge the snow captured by the hood. A cable-type lifter means is connected to the ejection plate to swing it upwardly to an essentially upright position.
Upward swinging motion of the ejection plate causes the snow to be thrown upwardly and forwardly through the mouth of the hood, thereby emptying the shovel so that it can be used to capture a new load of snow. An advantage of the shovel is that it does not have to be lifted from the ground surface; the ground wheels can remain on the ground surface at all times. The snow ejection plate ejects the snow from the hood without any requirement for lifting the hood away from the ground surface.
I have found that the performance of the ejection plate is improved when a stop means is arranged in the path of the ejection plate as it is being moved toward its upright position. The plate is stopped suddenly (abruptly) such that the snow on the ejection plate is thrown off the plate by inertia action. Slush that otherwise might stick to the ejection plate is effectively dislodged from the plate surface.
My shovel is in some respects similar to a snow shovel shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,751 issued to G. Schoemann, et al. The Schoemann patent shows a shovel formed partly by a flexible plastic sheet having a generally C-shaped cross-sectional configuration. A cable is connected to the sheet for exerting an upwardly pulling action thereon, sufficient to eject snow from the sheet front surface. It appears, however, that the flexible sheet enjoys only a slight forward motion, such that only a relatively small snow ejection force is developed. I believe my proposed shovel has an improved performance compared to the shovel shown in the Schoemann patent.